


Beacon

by ST_Osmanthus



Series: One Piece Works [1]
Category: One Piece
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Introspection, Nakamaship, POV Third Person, Protective Sanji
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-21 03:07:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4812680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ST_Osmanthus/pseuds/ST_Osmanthus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sanji doesn't like the cut of Zoro's jib. He also doesn't like the way Trafalgar stares at Luffy. Post-Punk Hazard. Rated teen for Sanji's mouth.</p><p>Possibly a gen one-shot, possibly a prelude to a long, slashy adventure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beacon

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Anything and everything related to One Piece is not owned by me, at all. Praise be upon Oda Eiichiro for his brilliance.

The crew opted to take their lunch out on deck. It was easier that way to keep an eye on Caesar, and everyone, including their temporary guests, had sorely missed the warmth of the sun after their bitter adventures on Punk Hazard. 

Sanji decided on lamb curry today, with extra spicy sauce for Usopp and Robin-chwan, chai for everyone, plenty of naan bread on the side, and a single serving of basmati rice for Trafalgar, the picky bastard.

To make sure the lamb tenderized properly, Sanji had to start making it early. It was a bit of hassle, but Kinemon and Momo had been so impressed with his cooking so far that he couldn’t help but show off a bit today. 

The kitchen door squeaked open, followed by the sound of hooves on floorboards. 

“It smells ready, Sanji! Do you need help setting the table?” Chopper chirped excitedly behind him. 

“Sure! I’ll dish it, and you can bring it out. Just make sure Luffy doesn’t inhale it all before everyone gets their share.”

“Nami will make sure.”

Sanji’s heart fluttered with pride. His Nami-san was so diligent! 

Sanji passed over two bowls half-filled with steaming curry to Chopper in his heavy point form. “What are they up to? Are they all behaving out there?” he asked. By “they,” he of course meant “Luffy,” because heaven forbid that an important hostage _and_ a suspicious ally find out exactly how much of an idiot the Straw Hat captain really was. They’d never respect the Straw Hats again.

Having Caesar temporarily on board was already grating on his nerves. And as much as Sanji was grateful to Trafalgar for putting him in Nami-san’s sexy body, he could never trust a guy who tried that hard to look cool. One irritatingly aloof swordsman was enough.

Actually, never mind, maybe Luffy’s idiocy will knock Trafalgar down a peg or two, maybe he’ll fling the shitty Shichibukai around a little, gomu gomu no rocket him into a cliffside or something. 

“…embarrassing to hear Luffy talk about me like that, so I came to help!” Chopper tittered, an out of place gleeful blush radiant on his humanoid cheeks. Sanji felt bad for tuning out, but as cute as Chopper was, he was still male, and Sanji just could not find the will to pay sincere attention to men as he did women. 

When all the food was served and Sanji was finally able to relax outside with everyone else, he found that Luffy and the rest were telling their guests the stories of how each Straw Hat member had been recruited.

Harangued, threatened, and demanded, more like. 

“And then Nami stole everybody’s wallets! It was amazing! And that’s how I got my navigator back.” Luffy guffawed in his chair, kicking back to lean on its two hind legs as he did so, almost knocking into the picnic table full of food.

Sanji found it interesting that Luffy saw that day as a reunion, whereas Sanji knew Nami-san saw it as the day she truly joined the crew. She disliked remembering her betrayal, despite the necessity at the time. 

“Yohohohoho! Nami-san is certainly talented…” Brook slurped his chai loudly as everyone waited in polite silence for the inevitable other shoe to drop, “…in her chest area.”

Nami-san sent Brook flying into the mast so hard it cracked his skull. She sighed as he ran off to find milk, “Well, I couldn’t leave you four boys on your own, could I? You’d still be wandering around in East Blue, probably in the other direction.”

“Shishishishi! This is delicious, Sanji!” Luffy cried in between bites, spewing chunks of curry and naan all over a disgruntled Usopp. He’d already finished half of his own serving and was taking bites out of Franky’s portion, too. Thanks to the fact that Franky’s cyborg body didn’t need as much food as a regular human, he never minded Luffy’s thieving hands during mealtimes. 

It was bad table manners, nonetheless, and while Kinemon and Momo were too preoccupied with the food to care, the vein on Trafalgar’s forehead was back, and Caesar wore a visible expression of disgust.

“Getting Sanji was almost as difficult as getting Franky,” Usopp groaned, lending Luffy his story-telling skills now that the captain was preoccupied with stuffing his face. “He wouldn’t leave Baratie. I mean, the food there was great, so I would’ve had trouble leaving, too, but still!”

Kinemon perked up from his bowl, food bits smeared all over the lower half of his face. “Does Usopp-dono mean to imply there live other cooks who can make such heavenly fares?”

Sanji lit a cigarette and tuned them out again. Usopp was sure to add a new embellishment to the story, as he did every time they sat around and did this, and Sanji didn’t need to hear how many buckets of tears he’d shed this time around. 

But something soothing settled in his stomach nonetheless. The last time he’d heard the stories being told in full was right after Thriller Bark. Brook, Franky, Robin-chan, Chopper, Nami-san, himself, Usopp, and the shitty marimo. Luffy loved telling the stories, loved hearing them being told even more. Intentionally or not, Luffy did this every time a new crew member was inducted. 

Sanji scanned his surroundings. Kinemon didn’t seem the type to haul his young son around on a pirate ship forever, and Caesar was to be handed over. He hoped today’s storytelling wasn’t an indication that Luffy wanted Trafalgar to stick around permanently. 

The Heart pirate in question sat against the mast, close enough to Luffy to fear stray spittles, but still outside of the rough circle everyone else had formed around the table. He seemed to take everything in with half a mind, looking up every now and then from his rice at the more interesting bits. Sanji was fairly certain that there wasn’t anything in these memories they had to keep secret, nothing Trafalgar, or Caesar, could potentially use against them in the future. 

Sanji got up to feed Caesar, who was handcuffed and situated far from the food. Enough haki-enforced kicks to the head had taught the scientist to stay quiet and grateful while Sanji spoon fed him every bite. Sanji would have preferred a hostage from the fairer sex, like that gorgeous harpy lady, but he wasn’t going to let anyone starve under his watch, not even Doflamingo’s evil, manipulative henchman who experimented on children for fun.

He kicked Caesar again, just because.

“…his tears flowed like mighty rivers, proof of his love for his benefactor, enough to fill 20 buckets… buckets… buckets…!!” Usopp exclaimed, now standing on a lawn chair with a flourish, left hand clutching at some phantom pain in his chest. Franky burst into manly tears while Luffy clapped at Usopp’s improvised echoes.

Sanji tensed and sought out the marimo, ready to retaliate the usual derisive snort with threats of violence. He was a little annoyed to find Zoro softly snoring against the ship’s starboard railing, since this was usually the part of the storytelling process where marimo insults him for crying, he initiates a brawl, and Nami-swan swoops in with her fists of love.

Speaking of Nami-san, it fell on her to tell Usopp’s story, which was one of the more straightforward ones. Usopp had wanted to seek bravery upon the sea since he was a child, and Luffy was the one who gave him that chance. It made their falling-out at Water 7 doubly frustrating, so much so that Luffy always intentionally left out Usopp’s departure and rejoining from this line of stories. 

“Sanji! Seconds!” his captain demanded. Luffy had eaten half of Franky’s and Robin-chan’s shares and all of sleeping Zoro’s. But Sanji wouldn’t be worth his salt as the Straw Hat cook if he didn’t make enough for seconds and thirds and fourths. 

He went back into the kitchen to refill Luffy’s bowl, but not without a not-so-gentle reminder for Luffy to use “please.” The boy just smiled at him, all teeth, and even sat up straighter to inch closer to Sanji’s ire, like a proud puppy who’d done mischief but knew they’d get away with it. 

Sanji had to resist petting Luffy on the head. It miffed him to no end that despite the frequency of his kicks, he gave in to Luffy’s selfish demands more often than not, and the boy was well aware of Sanji’s weakness. 

The simple truth was, Sanji loved feeding Luffy. He loved that Luffy preferred his cooking over anyone else’s; he loved that Luffy would crave it so much that he’d get up in the middle of the night and risk Sanji’s anger just to sneak in a few more bites of that day’s leftovers; he loved that the first thing Luffy did after waking from the exhaustions of battle was to seek out Sanji and his cooking. 

He often had to force himself to say no, because in his heart of hearts, Sanji would have been happy to feed Luffy whatever he wanted as much as he wanted. 

Luffy brought that out in all of them. For all the “no”s they’d say to him, they all held a secret desire to give in. They wanted to give Luffy everything because it was only fair, because Luffy had given them everything by having them at his side.

Whether it was Chopper’s reluctance to leave Drum Island, or Robin-chan’s fears of hurting others, or Franky’s guilty conscience keeping him in Water 7, Luffy came and knocked down all of their doubts. They’d been looking for a reason to go out to sea and seek their dreams, and against all odds, Luffy appeared and answered their unutterable wishes.

Not all of them, Sanji was reminded when he stepped outside again to Luffy saying, “I told him he’d have to join if I freed him, so he didn’t have a choice, shishishi!”

Sanji glared at the still sleeping marimo. No, not all of them. Zoro hadn’t been looking for a reason, he had never yearned for Luffy’s hand like the rest of them, with their hearts pounding, hoping, their tongues too afraid to voice such a request. 

_Take me out to sea with you._

Those words Robin-chan bravely shouted had been on each and every one of their minds at one point or another. But not Zoro’s. And maybe that was why, beyond their usual bickering and competitive camaraderie, Sanji truly did hate Zoro just a little. 

Even now, the swordsman who still bore the moniker “Pirate Hunter” sat apart from the crew, snoring away as they broke bread together. While everyone else thirsted for Luffy, gravitated toward him as though he was a beacon for home, Zoro alone could still find the strength to stay out of reach. Zoro alone didn’t _need_ Luffy.

But that wasn’t entirely true either. Sanji could not yet figure out the exact nuance, because he saw first hand the length marimo was willing to go to for Luffy on Thriller Bark. Still, he never did feel like Zoro needed Luffy the same way everyone else did. 

And it was also true the other way around. Luffy didn’t need Zoro, not for a companion in silly antics, nor making him food, nor navigating the seas, nor healing his wounds, nor deciphering ancient secrets, nor fixing his ship, nor playing him music. As far as Sanji could see, Zoro offered mere brute strength, which Luffy already had in spades.

It was all the more maddening that Luffy kept turning to Zoro despite the marimo’s utter uselessness and apparent disdain for other living beings. Like now, when Zoro purposefully placed himself at a distance, Luffy was willing to rise from his seat, with food still laid out in front of him, to beckon the swordsman closer.

Well, it was Luffy, so he didn’t so much “rise” as he rocketed into Zoro’s head and nearly rebounded overboard.

“Damn it, you stupid captain!” Zoro woke up startled, caught him by the scruff and gave him a good thump on the head. 

Luffy merely laughed as he bounced back to his seat. “Zoro sleeps too much! Are you a cat or something? Come eat lunch with us!”

Nami lifted up the last untouched cup of chai, now cold. “Yeah, come join us. Luffy just finished telling everyone how he blackmailed you into joining the crew.”

Kinemon said, “It sounds as though Luffy-dono saved Zoro-dono’s life! It is honorable indeed for Zoro-dono to repay such a debt with his servitude.”

Yawning, Zoro mumbled, “Who says I’m _serving_ this idiot? And I could’ve gotten out on my own eventually.” He waved away the chai and went inside, probably in search of some ale. 

Usopp scoffed and whispered to a nearby Chopper a little too loudly, “Yeah, knowing Zoro, he would’ve tried to get out of it by gnawing off his arms or something.”

The crew fell into a fit of laughter. Seeing the poorly concealed look of confusion on Trafalgar’s face, Luffy launched into another story of the time he walked in on Zoro’s escape/self-mutilation attempt on Little Garden. 

“Torao, you should’ve seen it, Zoro was so cool! Both his legs were bleeding like crazy!” 

Sanji couldn’t help but snort. “You idiot, how’s that remotely ‘cool’? Only a moron would try to fix a dilemma by creating a bigger dilemma.”

“Shut up, curly brows.” Zoro sauntered back out with an uncorked bottle in hand. It was the extent of his contribution to the conversation. Zoro never talked about old battle wounds. In fact, he still hadn’t said a word about how he lost that one eye.

He stood by the table to pick at the food. Sanji noticed Zoro wasn’t the type to eat much shortly after waking up. Sure enough, a few bites later, Zoro chose to nurse on his ale instead, moving to sit cross-legged on the grass leaning back against the right armrest of Luffy’s chair.

“Ah, but if Zoro chopped off his feet, we could’ve gotten Franky to build him robotic ones. How cool would that have been?!” Luffy bounced excitedly in his seat at the thought, jostling Zoro until the marimo knocked him on the head again.

“Ow, yeah! That would have been super okay with me!” Franky gave Luffy a thumb up. “Would have gladly customized Zoro’s feet however he wanted.”

“Yeah, like his toes could be fired off like bullets!” Luffy proposed. “Oh, or maybe they could extend at the ankles and then Zoro could be as tall as a giant! Oh, oh!Could you make him oven feet so he can cook meat in them when he’s sleeping?”

Luffy’s suggestions were quickly morphing from “could have” to “please do this”, and getting more bizarre by the second. But aside from a few mumbled curses, Zoro didn’t seem to be in the mood to protest.

Everyone had their eyes focused on Luffy as he exchanged ludicrous ideas with their cyborg shipwright, even Caesar, who actually looked mildly interested at some of Luffy’s more outlandish pitches. Zoro alone paid no attention to their captain. He just chugged away at his drink, eyes unfocused and at half-lid like he was ready to fall back asleep.

It was an outrageous sight.

Sanji mentally growled. Stupid self-centered marimo couldn’t even be bothered to pretend to listen. This was what worried Sanji about Trafalgar’s presence, because having one antisocial, uncommunicative bastard shitty swordsman undeserving of Luffy’s attention was plenty! 

It wasn't that Sanji was jealous, like Usopp had appallingly suggested one time after he and Zoro almost came to blows, again. Sanji didn’t get jealous of men. And it wasn’t like he didn’t understand the attachment Luffy had with Zoro. Zoro was Luffy’s first one, after all, the catalyst that transformed “Straw Hat Luffy” to “Straw Hat Crew”, and short of going back in time, nothing was ever going to change that fact.

Sanji knew this, and he knew while Luffy loved them all equally, maybe, just maybe, Zoro got an extra dash of his love. 

Still, Zoro’s attitude irked him sometimes, like when they all saw Luffy’s Conqueror’s Haki on Fishmen Island, and the bastard’s first reaction was to gloat about how he’d leave the crew if his captain weren’t capable of that, as if there was a contingency to his presence on the Sunny… as if there was a contingency to how far he was willing to go for Luffy, with Luffy. 

It felt like a waste. Not of food, but affection. Sanji simply could not shake the resentful feeling that Zoro was squandering the precious trust and love Luffy placed upon him. 

But having the first crew member squander that affection was one thing. Now there was an interloper, a temporary ally who could turn against them at any second, and Luffy, ever grateful and eager to repay a life debt, was already way too attached for Sanji’s comfort.

Sanji glared at Trafalgar for good measure, only to see the surgeon’s eyes fixed attentively on Luffy. Sanji couldn’t decipher Trafalgar’s expertly blank expression; there was no quirk of the lips or frown around the eyes to betray his thoughts. He merely watched Luffy jabber, barely blinking. If Trafalgar was having another moment of regret about forming this alliance with their crazy crew, he didn’t show it. 

Luffy came to the end of his spiel about robotic feet replacements. He then stretched out his neck to wrap twice around Zoro’s and asked to Zoro’s face, “What do you think, Zoro? What would you like?”

Without a pause and entirely unperturbed by the freaky rubbery flesh around his own neck, Zoro replied, “Hm, maybe idea number 11, the transforming ones that could turn into talons or fins. Those’d be pretty useful.”

“Tch,” Sanji tutted, earning him an unimpressed side glare from Zoro. He really didn’t think Zoro had been listening.

Luffy just grinned that wide, toothy, carefree smile of his, and snapped his neck back into place. 

It was then that Sanji caught it — a small shift in Trafalgar’s eyes as he stared at Luffy’s smile, a newly formed crinkle on his brow, and a sadness Sanji knew all too well. It was the same kind of sadness Nami-san wore whenever she reminisced about Bellemere-san, when Franky boasted the great craftsmanship of Tom-san, or when Sanji saw himself in the mirror after writing a letter to Zeff. Sanji didn’t know why the sight of Luffy’s smile would bring about such a look in Trafalgar, and the mystery left him unsettled. 

He didn’t have time to contemplate it further. Lunch was wrapping up and he had to start on marinating some ribs in time for dinner. He roped in Chopper and Usopp to help him wash and dry the dishes. 

While he cleared the table, Luffy was leading Trafalgar away to show him the crow’s nest, with Zoro trailing after them for his afternoon watch duty.

Dressrosa was another two days’ sailing away. Sanji promised himself to keep an extra close eye on Trafalgar when they got there, because he was 98% certain Trafalgar had an ulterior motive aside from taking down one of the Yonkou. One can never be too careful in a pirate alliance.

**Author's Note:**

> I just had to get this out. I do eventually want to write an adventure-based Luffy/Zoro, Luffy/Law fic, and if I do, this would be the prologue. But who knows? 
> 
> Second disclaimer: Since the story was narrated from Sanji's POV, Sanji's views do not represent the views of the author or his fellow fictional characters. Sanji may be extremely biased in certain areas and thus unable to see the bigger picture. Sanji isn't sorry.


End file.
